One-Handed Pushups: Yes, They're Doable!

One-Handed Pushups

If you can do these well, you can declare yourself strong as far as I'm concerned. They're tough. But, have no fear, you can do them too with a bit of practice! Even I have some difficulties with this one...

One-handed pushups, if you can do them, are a great addition to any chest or pushup workout. Besides just working the chest, the movement also requires action out of the triceps and core stability muscles (ab muscles along with the lower back muscles).

So, here are some tips to get started!

Make sure you can do a regular pushup with excellent form. Although quality is better than quantity, you'll also need perform lots of repetitions of the normal pushup without losing the proper form.

Create muscle confusion by doing other pushup variations and adding versatility to your chest workouts. This will maximize your gains and strength at a rapid rate (well, as rapid as it can be! Everything takes time...).

One other way to add a bit of spice to your pushup workout is to work both the slow and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Basically, the slow twitch fibers are responsible for endurance while the fast twitch fibers work more during explosive movements (more info). So, alternate between very slow and explosive pushups! On the slow ones, allow 4-5 seconds to slowly lower yourself to the ground. Allow another 4-5 seconds on the way up! These are tough. The fast ones are just fast - do as many as you can as quickly as you can!

The transition to the one-handed pushup can be done after a bit of preliminary work as identified above. You don't want to just jump right into it. Start with your knees on the floor a little wider than shoulder-width (for balance). Put your hand on the floor directly underneath the center of your chest. Place your other hand on your back. Now, lower yourself slowly as far as you can go (don't worry about pushing back up). Try to hold this position for a second or two! To come out of it, just put your other hand on the floor and get yourself back up to the starting position.

Once this motion becomes easier, starting doing the pushup motion without using your other hand (the one that's sitting on your back). You might find it a bit easier to add a little twist to the motion is it improves your balance. What I mean is, open your chest towards the hand that's on the floor. This places the center of gravity more over the center of your body.

After you can do a good amount of reps in this position, you can graduate to full one-handed pushups! Remember, make sure to keep your core tightened and your whole body remaining in a straight line as much as possible. Lower yourself slowly and push back up without allowing your back to bend forward or extend.

Now you've got it! It takes a bit of practice and strength training to get up to this point, but I have faith in you!

Pushup Styles
Standard Pushup	Stability Ball Pushup	Resistance Tube Pushup
Dive Bomber Pushup	Hindu Pushup	Wobble Board Pushup
Diamond Pushup	One-Handed Pushup	BOSU Ball Pushup
Military Pushup	T Pushup	Sphinx Pushup
Weighted Vest Pushup w/ Hip Flexion	Stability Ball Pushup Walk

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